MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) Shares Sold by Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV

Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV reduced its position in shares of MSCI Inc. (NYSE:MSCI) by 16.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,549 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 298 shares during the period. Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV’s holdings in MSCI were worth $930,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MSCI. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in MSCI by 30.0% in the third quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $329,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in MSCI by 30.9% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 174,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $104,991,000 after buying an additional 41,346 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in MSCI by 4.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 536,211 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $312,574,000 after buying an additional 23,050 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 339.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 26,834 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,642,000 after purchasing an additional 20,730 shares during the period. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of MSCI by 176.2% during the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $921,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares during the period. 89.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

MSCI Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of MSCI stock opened at $554.92 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $584.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $589.15. The company has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.19. MSCI Inc. has a 1 year low of $439.95 and a 1 year high of $642.45.

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The technology company reported $4.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.96 by $0.22. MSCI had a negative return on equity of 156.08% and a net margin of 38.83%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.68 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that MSCI Inc. will post 16.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MSCI Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $1.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This is an increase from MSCI’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. This represents a $7.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. MSCI’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.21%.

Insider Transactions at MSCI

In other news, CEO Henry A. Fernandez purchased 5,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $574.51 per share, with a total value of $3,044,903.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,269,951 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $729,599,549.01. This trade represents a 0.42 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays lowered their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on MSCI from $700.00 to $680.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $675.00 price target on shares of MSCI in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised MSCI from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $617.00 to $723.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised MSCI from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.23.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct.